Must I write?
“Withdraw into yourself. Explore the reason that bids you write, find out if it has spread out its roots in the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die, if writing should be denied to you. Above all, ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night, “Must I write?” Dig deep into yourself for an answer. And if this answer should be in the affirmative, if you can meet this solemn question with a simple strong “I must,” then build up your life according to this necessity.
[…]
But perhaps even after this retreat into yourself and into your solitude you will have to renounce the idea of becoming a poet. As I said, the feeling that one could live without writing is enough to prove that one should not write at all. But even so, this contemplation which I beg you to make will not have been in vain. In any case your life will thereafter find out its own course, and I hope for you more sincerely than I can say that it may be good, rich and wide.”
